🏆📚 JUJU AWARDS 2025: Book Of The Year
This is the last of the #JujuAwards2025! And of course I save the best for last with #BookOfTheYear.
I read a fair bit this year, despite being busy exploring Australia, studying, hitting the gym again, etc. (Yeah, turns out it wasn't a sustainable lifestyle!) I decided to read more essays and also more short stories. When you like sci-fi, short stories are a very good choice as they bring plenty of ideas in a concentrate amount of pages.
Here are the nominees.
Free by Lea Ypi
In this memoir, the author revisits her childhood in Albania, from dictatorship to democracy, to civil war. There is a lot of humour, notably when the author, who was exposed to propaganda until her teens, discovers her parents used to be bourgeois.
The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary by Ken Liu
In this novella, a scientist invents a machine that allows to see the past. He gives access to descendants of victims of atrocities committed in Unit 731 during the Second World War, who witness the horror, which triggers important questions.
Clarkesworld Magazine 223, edited by Neil Clarke
My first edition of Clarkesworld, a magazine of short speculative fiction stories, and I wasn't disappointed. I especially liked Thomas Ha's story, In My Country, which is shortlisted by the serial for best story of the year.
The Persuaders by Anand Giridharadas
An essay from the US written before the 2024 election about how, for the progressive side, to win over the other side. Some interesting insights, notably the method of deep canvassing.
Cyberpunk by Asma Mhalla
A book written by a French essayist after the 2024 US election about the technological dystopia that we might already be living in. Of course it's highly topical but the writing is also witty.
There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm
A sci-fi horror novel from Britain in which agents fight an impossible battle against an enemy that cannot, or actually, must not be remembered.
And the winner is… Clarkesworld Magazine 223! Reminder to support short speculative fiction. And now back onto reviews :)